An electric motor vehicle includes a storage apparatus, such as a battery, a capacitor, and a flywheel, to electrically, chemically, or mechanically store electric energy. The electric motor vehicle travels using power stored in the storage apparatus as a power source. Examples of the electric motor vehicle are an electric vehicle that travels using a motor as a drive source, and a hybrid vehicle that travels using both a motor and an engine as a drive source. Prior to use of the electric motor vehicle or after use of the electric motor vehicle for a certain period, it becomes necessary to perform a feeding operation to supply power from a charging and discharging installation (hereinafter, also referred to as an “external charging and discharging installation”) external to the electric motor vehicle to the storage apparatus to charge the storage apparatus.
The storage apparatus included in the electric motor vehicle is used not only as a power source of the electric motor vehicle but also as a power source for household use for the purpose of coping with power shortages in the event of a disaster, and efficiently using natural energy such as photovoltaic power generation. For example, the storage apparatus of the electric motor vehicle is used as a storage apparatus for storing a surplus of power generated at home. Power stored in the storage apparatus of the electric motor vehicle is supplied, for example, to a home through the external charging and discharging installation.
The electric motor vehicle has a connector for physically or electromagnetically connecting the electric motor vehicle to the external charging and discharging installation to store power supplied from the external charging and discharging installation in the storage apparatus or to supply power stored in the storage apparatus to the external charging and discharging installation. A user of the electric motor vehicle is required to perform a charging and discharging operation of connecting the electric motor vehicle to the external charging and discharging installation through the connector and performing charging and discharging.
A charging and discharging control apparatus is installed in the electric motor vehicle to provide communication with the external charging and discharging installation and to perform charging and discharging processing on the storage apparatus. The charging and discharging control apparatus determines, in consideration of various conditions, a current value at which charging and discharging are performed, time at which charging and discharging are started, and time at which charging and discharging are ended to charge or discharge the storage apparatus of the electric motor vehicle. Various conditions include the state of the storage apparatus such as storage capacity and temperature of the storage apparatus, rated capacity of the storage apparatus, rated capacity of the external charging and discharging installation, an electric rate and available electric power that vary over time, and estimated time at which a user uses the electric motor vehicle next, for example.
In order to improve electric cost during traveling of the electric motor vehicle and to prevent, for example, a flat battery caused by consuming power stored in the battery when the electric motor vehicle is not used, the charging and discharging control apparatus is preferably in a standby state in which power consumption is low when the charging and discharging operation is not performed. On the other hand, when the user starts the charging and discharging operation, the charging and discharging control apparatus is expected to be in an activated state in which the charging and discharging processing is possible or to transition to the activated state in a short period of time.
A control apparatus performing electronic control is required to undergo various procedures to be in the activated state after a power supply is turned on. For example, boot processing of reading an operating system (OS) into a central processing unit (CPU), processing of initializing various types of hardware and memory performed by the OS, fault diagnosis processing, processing of reading and activating a control application program from a non-volatile recording medium, and the like are required to be performed. Some apparatuses thus take it a long time to be activated.
An on-vehicle navigation apparatus is a typical example of an on-vehicle apparatus that takes a long time to be activated. Technology for improving users' convenience while suppressing power consumption during a standby state is studied (see Patent Documents 1 and 2, for example).
An on-vehicle electronic apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, for example, a navigation apparatus, regularly activates a transmitter/receiver, transmits an ID request to a mobile apparatus external to a vehicle, and waits for a reply from the mobile apparatus. When a signal is returned from the mobile apparatus, the navigation apparatus is activated before a user gets into the vehicle. When there is no reply from the mobile apparatus, a power supply of the transmitter/receiver is turned off, so that power consumption during the standby state can be suppressed compared to a case where the power supply of the transmitter/receiver is always ON.
An on-vehicle apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 2, for example, a navigation apparatus, is maintained in an operating state for a certain period after a user finishes using the on-vehicle apparatus and turns off an accessory switch. As a result, the user can activate the on-vehicle apparatus in a short time without performing activation processing by turning on the accessory switch in the period during which the on-vehicle apparatus is maintained in the operating state after the accessory switch is turned off.